My first dive into Salt Water

ReeferWolf · May 9, 2020

So I've had an idea of the tank I wanted for awhile now. Started a couple of years ago, was put on hold for awhile, but am almost ready to proceed. I don't have a lot of room in my place so as much as I would like to go big I can't ... also can't really afford to go too big. One of the most intimidating factors about this hobby is the expense, especially when starting out. At least the shopping part is fun. So at this time I don't have any pics yet, cause nothing exists yet. Thinking of getting the wood for the stand this weekend though.

I'm looking for a reef tank eventually. Will be starting with fish and moving up to corals.

So here is my basic idea with some of the components I have chosen. Nothing is written in stone yet and am always ready to listen to advice or alternate ideas.

Tank - Seapora 2' cube - 60 Gallon
Underlay - Innovative Marine DIY Aquarium Self-Leveling Aquarium Mat - 24x24
Overflow - Eshopps Eclipse Medium Overflow Box (up to 125g, 800gph)
Stand - Home made. Plan on making it a bit oversized. Going for 32" high 30" wide and 27" deep. Looking to make enough room for a decent sump in the stand.
Sump - Pro Clear Aquatic Systems Red Flex Reef Sump - 100
Skimmer - Coral Box D500+ DC Skimmer - 150G
Return Pump - Coral Box / Jebao DC 2000 Controllable Nano Water Pump
Wave Pumps - Jebao SOW-8 Wavemaker / 185 to 2115 GPH x 2
Lighting - Aquanest M8 LED Lighting System
Heating - Fluval E Advanced Electronic Heater - 300 W
ATO Tank - Pro Clear Aquatic Systems Auto Top-Off Reservoir Tanks - 10 gal
ATO - Neptune Apex ATK V2 - Planning on eventually getting a Neptune Apex somewhere down the road so though I would start with compatible components.

Looking forward to any thoughts and ideas you might have.

KrisReef · May 9, 2020

Some times people with nice systems sell the full setup for pennies on the dollar. If you don’t have any equipment I’d save money and watch for a system to go up for sale.

But whatever you do getting a reef tank is a good idea!
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

vetteguy53081 · May 9, 2020

Welcome to the R2R community and family !!!

Dr. Phil · May 9, 2020

Welcome to R2R!

I agree with @KrisReef that a used system is sometimes the best way to go. Having said that almost all of my systems have been used and most of them were a pain. However, my latest system is a higher end used system (Waterbox) and I have added other high end equipment to it and couldn't be more satisfied with it. The moral of the story is used is great but it pays to be picky even when buying used.

Keep us posted on what you decide! Good luck and happy reefing!

S.Pepper · May 9, 2020

Whatever u believe your initial costs will be, double that and then add 20%. That will be close to your real cost. Someone told me that at the beginning of my venture into SW tanks--and it was true. And that's only the beginning. It's an expensive hobby if u want to do it right. YMMV.

ReeferWolf · May 9, 2020

KrisReef said:
Some times people with nice systems sell the full setup for pennies on the dollar. If you don’t have any equipment I’d save money and watch for a system to go up for sale.

But whatever you do getting a reef tank is a good idea!
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I've seen some posts by other who got amazing deals on tanks so I did actually think of this and checked out Kijiji a couple of days ago and there was almost nothing there for reef tanks, and the rest were too big. Edmonton is a smaller market at under 1Million people and the next closest major center is about 3 hours away. I could be waiting a very long time for something that I'm looking for to become available. I'll have to see if there are any other places to look

KrisReef · May 9, 2020

ReeferWolf said:
I've seen some posts by other who got amazing deals on tanks so I did actually think of this and checked out Kijiji a couple of days ago and there was almost nothing there for reef tanks, and the rest were too big. Edmonton is a smaller market at under 1Million people and the next closest major center is about 3 hours away. I could be waiting a very long time for something that I'm looking for to become available. I'll have to see if there are any other places to look

Any local fish stores (?) might be able to connect you with people getting out.

El_Guapo13 · May 9, 2020

Welcome to R2R!!!

ReeferWolf · May 9, 2020

KrisReef said:
Any local fish stores (?) might be able to connect you with people getting out.

Yes, actually I have a favorite that specializes in aquatic pets (Big Als). I'll swing by tomorrow and ask them, will also inquire if there are any local reefer groups in the area I could connect with.

ReeferWolf · May 13, 2020

Sorry for the late response. I spoke with my LFS and their recommendation was Kijiji as they don't track stuff like that. So I'll keep looking but honestly would prefer to go with new as the shopping is half the fun and you never know how the equipment was treated and especially with the tank wanting to make sure the seals are new ... although that's never a guarantee either.

BlazinNano · May 13, 2020

Welcome to R2R. Sounds like you have a good game plan.cant wait to see it all come together.

ReeferWolf · May 22, 2020

Good Evening all, it's been awhile and I thought I would touch base with you. Don't want you thinking I've forgotten about you, lol. I've been doing a lot of reading here and studying up on everything I can think of or find that increases my knowledge ... which is pretty much everything. I try to plan everything in advance. I'm very deliberate that way. I know that I can't plan for everything, and I do expect there to be surprises and challenges along the way, but I'm hoping to mitigate them somewhat. I usually end up thinking things through 2 or 3 times before I jump in feet first and flail away anyway, lol. I've laid out a plan for the wood for my stand and figured while I was doing it, I'd create a stand for my QT tank as well. Need something to use of the extra pieces of plywood I'll have left over. I'm planning on at least 1 10g QT tank.

I've also laid out a plan for my plumbing in the diagram below. I'd like any thoughts and ideas on it. I've never plumbed a system before so I'm not sure if I'm overdoing or underdoing it or not. Here is the plan I currently have. Obviously not to scale but just a general idea of the placement of the major components.

ReeferWolf · May 31, 2020

And so it begins ... (apologies for the geek out, always wanted to have a reason to say that)

Picked up the wood for the stand on Friday. As I have limited space and no access to a table saw, I had them cut up the 3/4" and 1/4" plywood. I just need to get ahold of a chop saw to cut the 2x4's into the proper lengths.

Also made a bunch of purchases, I am, well somewhat is a bit of an understatement lol, poorer now. Some of what I had listed before has changed as I found things I liked better or better deals. Been shopping around and reading reviews etc. for awhile now but decided it was time to make some decisions. For the sump I went with the Eshopps AZU-100 Sump, and the Eshopps Pacific Large Reservoir (10 Gallon) for the ATO. I got lucky and stumbled onto the sump while shopping and I liked the looks of it, but it's very rare (Not even a pic of it on the Eshopps website) so here is a picture of it (from the advertisement, I'll include my own shots once it arrives)

I also went with the Tunze ATO instead of the Neptune as I found a lot of negative reviews about the Neptune, I was actually very surprised by that. Also the return pump has been significantly upgraded to the Jebao DCP 6500 as my research indicated my first choice was very much under powered. I was going to go with 2, but the sump doesn't have the space for that. Actually most sumps in the 24" class don't have a lot of return pump space.

Which kind of leads me to a question I have about the plumbing. I was planning on going with a 3/4" return line, but my research indicated that going with a 1" would give me better GPH, as the 3/4" will create additional head pressure by limiting the volume of water through the pipe. I just wanted to be sure that my understanding was correct on that. Also are check valves considered beneficial or are they just a potential problem, even if you replace them every year or so?

ReeferWolf · Jul 13, 2020

So it's been awhile since my last update and there has been some progress in my build. I was able to rent a chop saw and cut up the wood, as can be seen here in a little pile

Once the pieces were cut I could begin construction on my 2 stands. My DT and a QT stand. Here is a shot of my QT stand in construction

and with my QT tank (Using a 20L)

Course here is the DT stand under construction

Skinned with the front on

Front off

And Painted outside

And inside

Nothing elaborate, mostly functional but kinda suits me as well as the rest of my furniture, which is mostly black.

ReeferWolf · Jul 13, 2020

Course during the construction some of the really exciting stuff happened, such as receiving some parts as well as picking up the tank

Once the stand was done and the tank is ready I was able to get the plumbing completed. Here are a couple of shots. Inside the stand

Because I'm restricted in space I wasn't able to capture the entire outside in one shot so here is the shot of the outside plumbing top part

And lower part

And here is a shot of the Sump with the skimmer inserted

The system is now ready for a wet test

And here is a shot of inside the back of the tank

As you can see from the plumbing shots, I had to make a couple of changes to my original plan. I found out during construction that I didn't have enough space to install the check valves. Actually things were a lot tighter than I had at first though and I used far less of the plumbing than I had thought I would. I created the stand at 32" and am thinking now I could have made it higher as it's kind of tight inside.

Haven't decided yet on how to mount the pump controls or electrical. It's obvious to me now that the inside it too tight and I'm not comfortable with putting my power bar inside the stand, so will need to put that to the outside. Also thinking that I want the pump controls outside the system to make it easier to control them for feedings etc. I'll have to figure out the wiring, and once that is done the system is ready for a wet test. That will be coming hopefully by the next weekend. Will keep you all updated.

ReeferWolf · Jul 20, 2020

Well the next weekend has come and gone and I still haven't completed the we test. Kinda scared to. I have to do it inside as I can't get the stand outside to do it, and I'm not sure if the hairline dip in the top of the stand that I think I can see will have an effect on the lower brace of the tank. But the rest is pretty much ready to go, so I should get to that this week.

Also picked up some components to build a top for my QT. Got the parts put together except for the mesh which I still need to do, that will also happen sometime this week.

revhtree · Jul 20, 2020

Come on man get it tested!

ReeferWolf · Jul 27, 2020

Okay so I finally took the plunge (pun intended) and got the tank wet as you'll see below. No drips or leaks except for the ball valve inside was not holding water. Ended up being the seal wasn't in correctly. Had to take it off and reinsert it. Got that fixed. Will take awhile to get used to the noise though. The water rushing into the overflow is quite loud, even with it dialed in as close as I can get to it. I'm thinking I need to drop the power of my return pump from 64% down to maybe 50% to start with and then redial it in. I'll be working on that this week. Here is a shot of the tank with water in it and pump running (although that's a little harder to see).

Also got the light setup but may need to rethink it. I'm having issues setting it up. It's called Aquanest M8 and the only phone app is from their website and I think it's for an older iteration of the OS and it's not working properly. There isn't even an app on the google store, although there is one on the apple store. Anyway here it is, unadjusted and directly out of the box.

Now I gotta figure out how to get the regular water out of the tank so I can get the salt water into the tank lol. Will be watching it for a couple of days at least to make sure there are no issues, cause once it's into position, it'll be very difficult to reach the back plumbing for any changes.

ReeferWolf · Aug 11, 2020

Looking for some opinions about aquascaping this puppy. I have a couple of shots below. Picked up some South Seas Base Rock (Only description I have on it) last week. Trying to put it together, but as I have a negative creative co-efficient, it's not so easy for me. For reference cardboard I'm using as a template came off the bottom of the tank, so it's very close to the size of the tank. The lines I have marked are 1.5" away from the edge of the tank on each side (even the back). The overhead shot shows the left side getting really close to the glass for some reason, but I think that might be just part of the angle as it's not actually that close. Nothing has been glued yet, so it can all be remade as needed. Any feedback, thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

The first shot is of my aquascape from a little ways away.